V W\ 


16 


*->i 

hath God Wrought ?" 


sermon 


BY THE 


REV. MARK HOPKINS, D.D. 


at the Dedication of ths 


MEMORIAL CHURCH 


% 


A T 


HAMPTON, V 





HAMPTON, VA. 

NORMAL SCHOOL STEAM PRESS 
1886. 




SERMON 


HY THE 

REV. MARK HOPKINS, D. D. 


Delivered May 20th, IEEE, at the Dedication cf the 


MEMORIAL CHURCH. 


A Gilt by Mr. Elbert B. Monroe, fTcm the Estate 


of the Late Frederick Marquand, 


TO THE 


HAMPTON NORMAL and AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE. 


NORMAL SCHOOL STEAM PRESS 
HAMPTON, V* 


For pin poses of comparison there is added to 
Dr. Hopkins' sermon , the first report of this school 
written by him in 1869. 

A brief statement of the organization and con- 


dition of the school is also added. 


SERMON. 


“ What hath God wrought ?” — Numbers xxiii., 23d. 

When these words were uttered a great work had 
been wrought. The Israelites had been in bondage in 
Egypt. While there they had been the occasion of 
the ten plagues to the Egyptians. They had been 
brought forth with a mighty hand. The Red Sea had 
opened before them. The smitten rock had poured 
forth its waters. The manna had descended. The 
law — that marvellous law which is for all times and for 
all people — had been given from Sinai. The people 
had once reached the borders of the promised land, 
and because of unbelief had failed to enter in. They 
had then wandered in the wilderness for forty years 
till every faithless man had died, and now they had 
come again to that border, and their tents were pitch- 
ed on the plain of Moab, eastward of the Jordan. 

Overlooking that plain was Mount Pisgah. On the 
top of that were seen seven smoking altars, and on each 
of these had been offered a bullock and a ram. Near 
these altars stood the King of Moab surrounded by 
his princes, and by his side stood Balaam, who had 
been sent for from the mountains of the East to come 
and curse Israel. Already had he once withdrawn from 


4 


his burnt sacrifice to hear the message from God, and 
returning with a blessing instead of a curse, had utter- 
ed the strange prophecy, so strangely fulfilled, “ Lo the 
people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned 
among the nations and had expressed the wish, so 
often expressed since, “ Let me die the death of the 
righteous, and let my last end be like his." With 
this the king could not be content, but said unto 
him, ‘‘Come, I pray thee, with me unto another 
place from whence thou mayest see them ; thou 
shalt see but the utmost part of them, and shalt 
not see them all, and curse me them from thence.’' 
“And he brought him unto the field of Zophim, to the 
top of Pisgah." Thence he beheld them, the encamp- 
ment of millions of men spread out before him, a 
nation brought out of bondage and of ignorance about 
to enter upon the promised land, and to take its 
unique and solitary place among the nations. Well 
might he then exclaim, “ What hath God wrought ?” 
Yes, a great work had been wrought, and God had 
wrought it. Not by aspirations for liberty, or heroic 
strivings of the Israelites had this been done. It had 
been done in opposition to their craving for the flesh 
pots of Egypt ; in oppositon to that tendency to idola- 
try which led them to worship the golden calf at the 
very foot of Sinai, and despite the unbelief and cow- 
ardice of a whole generation of men who perished in 
the wilderness. As in all cases where men have been 
raised from a low condition, it was by an interposition 


5 


from without and above themselves. God had done it. 

And as the prophet, standing on the heights of 
Pisgah, and looking over the encampment of the Is- 
raelites could but exclaim, “ What hath God wrought?” 
so may we, standing on these heights of time, and 
looking back over twenty-five years, and also looking 
at what we now see around us, make the same exclama- 
tion. Thus looking back, we see four millions of col. 
ored people in bondage in these United States. In 
large part they had come to be thus by inheritance. 
The system of slavery had become organic. It was 
recognized in the Constitution, was imbedded in our 
institutions, and had become so intertwined with the 
domestic and social relations of the South, and with 
the trade and interests of the North, that its removal 
seemed impossible. Still, it was in utter contradic- 
tion to the sentiments of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and to the spirit of our Institutions. Accord- 
ingly it became a disturbing element in ali our political 
and social relations. Not more annoying was the pres- 
ence of Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh than was the 
constant intrusion of this subject to the politicians in 
every political gathering, and to the religious and 
charitable organizations in their counsels. It embroiled 
everything. Church and State, politics and religion, 
and scarcely were the ten plagues of Egypt more dis 
astrous than were the disturbances and disagreements 
throughout the whole country from this cause. Of 
these disturbances and derangements the outcome was 


6 


the greatest civil war the world has ever seen ; and 
the emancipation of the colored people. Then the 
nation took a new departure under new conditions. 
In many respects there was deliverance to the master 
as well as to the slave. The slave, whether wisely or 
unwisely, was at once made a freeman with the right 
to vote. The Constitution was made to conform to 
the spirit of our institutions so that it could look the 
Declaration of Independence in the face and not blush- 
New adjustments began to be made, new duties, new 
responsibilities, new possibilities, equivalent to the 
prospect of a promised land, opened themselves up to 
the colored people, and also to the nation as a whole, 
and now, looking at what is around and before us, we 
may well say, “ What hath God wrought ?” 

Yes, this work too was wrought by God. The train 
was laid by no human hand, and the result was not 
designed. There was no formal declaration of war. It 
only needed that Sumpter should be fired on, and the 
country was aflame. The war was to be transient. It 
was to last but ninety days. But there were forces in 
the air beyond human control. Every one felt that. 
Somebody delayed, and sombody blundered, and the 
war went on. It would not stop, it could not stop till 
the great crime of the nation had been atoned for by 
its best blood, and emancipation was proclaimed. The 
result was thus providentially from ood ; but morally, 
and more immediately it was from Christianity. It 
was from God as manilested in Christ. If Christ had 


7 


not lived it could not have been done. Imbedded and 
incorporated as slavery was in our whole system, it 
could have been thrown off as alien under no other reli- 
gion. Mohammedanism would have perpetuated it. So 
would Brahmanism and Buddhism. Nothing but the 
idea of manhood as established by Christ, of the idea 
of man as in the image of God, as a person, as thus 
having rights, and of his value and destiny as belong- 
ing to a moral and an eternal kingdom could have 
been the basis for the strong revulsion that was felt 
against the system, that wrought for its overthrow, and 
is still working for the removal of its effects. 

Again, if we look back over these same twenty-five 
years, we may notice a marked change in the attitude 
of the people and government of this country towards 
the Indian tribes, and also of the Indian tribes towards 
the people and government of the country. The his- 
tory of these tribes from the first is a sad one. From 
the landing of our forefathers at Plymouth attempts 
were made to Christianize and civilize the aborigines. 
They were made by Eliot, and Sargeant, and Edwards, 
and Brainerd, and others. The American Board sent 
missionaries to the Cherokees and Choctaws with 
marked success. But in general the effect upon the 
Indian of his contact with civilization as it has pushed 
him westward, has been deterioration rather than ele- 
vation. The policy of the Government in recognizing 
them as independent, or quasi independent nations, 
has been supposed by many to have been a mistaken one. 


8 


Certainly, if treaties were made with them they should 
have been carefully observed. They were not thus 
observed ; and because of this the Indian writhed 
constantly under a sense of wrong. If we take with 
this the deceptions and abuses of unprincipled white 
men, always numerous on the borders of civilization, 
and for which the Indian had no adequate redress, it is 
not surprising that there came to be in large bodies of the 
Indians a settled antipathy to all white men, and a sul- 
lenness bordering on desperation. Nor, if we add to 
this the fatal proclivity of the Indian for intoxicating 
drinks, is it surprising that there should have been 
treacheries and the most fearful atrocities on the part 
of the Indians, or that these again should have awak- 
ened a prevalent feeling among the whites on our west- 
ern border that the Indians must be exterminated. 
But far different on both sides is the attitude now- 
The Government is making inquiries and devising 
means, and seeking to appropriate faithfully and in 
the most judicious manner adequate funds for their 
good. The whole nation is in a measure awakened to 
their past wrongs, their present rights, and to what is 
needed for their future well being. The Indians, too, on 
their part, see the necessity that is upon them fora new 
departure, and are ready and anxious to send their 
children to schools provided for them. 

What is to be the future of these tribes we know 
not, but we rejoice to believe that a brighter day is 
dawning for them, and in view of the changed attitude 


9 


of which 1 have spoken, and of what has already been 
done, we may well say again. “ What hath God 
wrought ?” 

Once more, standing on this ground, and looking 
back over only seventeen years, and then looking 
around us, do we say that a great work has been 
wrought. 

Seventeen years ago next July the first public ex- 
amination of this school was held, and, but for the 
part then taken by myself, and Oy Williams College, 
through three men who were also its graduates. 1 
should not be here to-day. Those men were General 
Armstrong, General Garfield, then Member of Con- 
gress, and Mr. Alexander Hyde, of the Massachusetts 
Board of Agriculture. The school had then been 
under the charge of General Armstrong for one year, 
and he had invited us three, together with the Rev. 
B. G. Northrupof the Connecticut Board of Education, 
to be present as a committee. There were also present 
Dr. Strieby and the Rev. George Whipple, who repre- 
sented the American Missionary Association which 
then had an important interest in the school. There 
was no Commencement. No general public was pres- 
ent. We, seven men, listened to the examinations 
consulted earnestly with reference to the future meth- 
ods and prospects of the school, and then the Com- 
mittee provided for and adopted a report. That report 
gave an account of the location of the school, of its 
history, of its object and plan, of its condition and 


IO 


prospects, and commended it to the favor and confi- 
dence of the public. 

The work wrought here since that day has been 
threefold. 

And ist. A great preliminary work in providing 
buildings, and farms and implements, and apparatus 
has been done. At that time there were upon this 
ground but two dwelling houses, some soldiers’ bar- 
racks, an old mill fitted up for the purposes of the 
school, and the Butler School-house in the distance- 
Now, in addition to the two dwelling houses, there are 
forty-five buildings ; twenty-nine for the Academic 
and boarding departments, and sixteen for the Indus- 
trial department. To be appreciated these buildings 
must be seen. Of those in the Academic department 
Virginia Hall, giving only the thousands, cost $88,ooo- 
Academic Hall, $37,000; Winona Lodge, $30,000; 
Girls' Cottage. $15,000 ; Wigwam, $n,ooo; and, omit- 
ing the others, Memorial Chapel, now to be dedicated, 
$55,000; the whole amounting to $329,000. Of these, 
the Memorial Chapel completes the circle, and is the 
last of buildings in this department that will be needed 
for years to come. Of this it should be known that 
the whole cost is from the estate of Mr. Frederic 
Marquand. It should also be known that the will of 
Mr. Marquand in relation to it was not mandatory, 
and that Mr. Munroe, who would otherwise have 
received the money, has generously and gladly catried 
out the wish of Mr. Marquand. In the Industrial 


department the Huntington Industrial Works cost 
$3,4,000; the Stone building. $27,000; the Home farm 
$25.000 ; and the Hemenway and Canebrake larms, 
$20000; the whole in this department amounting to 
$133,000. and the total of both, to $462,000. 

Of the Industrial department it may be said that 
no one can go through it without surprise at the num- 
ber and extent of its departments, and the perfection 
of its work. The interior of this chapel has been fin- 
ished chiefly by the students ; the same is true of the 
Gymnasium and the Hospital ; and the work would do 
credit to mechanics anywhere. If it cannot be fully said 
of this department, as it can of the sawmill in the Hunt- 
ington Industrial Works, that it furnishes the fuel that 
keeps 'tself in motion, it does that very nearly, and in 
addition sends out skilled mechanics 

Again, a great intellectual work has been done 
here. 

It was no small thing, when experience had as yet 
opened no pathway, and clamorous voices were heard 
on every side, each advocating a different method, to 
devise a system of education having f< »r its objective 
point the elevation, up to the intelligence and industry 
and thrift required for self-support and average citi- 
zenship in a free republic, of a m iss of people, ignorant, 
improvident, and unused to the demands and restraints 
of self-imposed work. This was to be done, and yet 
the education was to be so limited as to be practicable 
in point of expense, and so as not to disqualify by 


12 


over education the teachers who were to leaven the 
masses. Such a system, combining instruction in let- 
ters with manual labor in agriculture and the mechanic 
arts, has been devised, organized and persistently 
maintained. It was not, perhaps, absolutely new in 
any one of its features, but it was a new combination 
devised with reference to a special work. This com- 
bination has vindicated itself by its results, and has so far 
commended itself to the public generally that it is now 
beginning to be felt that the same method should be 
carried into our common schools as the best means of 
awakening interest, of training the perceptive faculties, 
and of gaining practical power. 

The third form of the work done here is moral. I 
say moral, not as undervaluing the religious work, but be 
cause of itsfar-reaching tendency to diminish the super- 
stition that separates morality from religion, and which 
is among the most serious obstacles to the progress 
of the colored race. This superstition is not that of 
signs and portents that are supposed to relate to events 
in this world. It is what may be called a religious super- 
stition, and the essence of it is to attribute efficacy to 
outward acts, forms, ceremonies, penances, emotions, 
that neither spring from love, nor improve the charac- 
ter. The universal tendency to do this indicates a 
wrong bias in our nature. True religion — the love of 
God and of man — is simple, rational, universally and 
necessarily beneficent. A child can understand and 
practice it. The wayfaring man though a fool ne^d, 


13 


not err concerning it. But instead of this we see men 
seeking immunity from the consequences of guilt by 
outward acts and forms which they call religion, but 
which can only sink them deeper in degradation. 
The saddest part of history is that which shows us so 
large a portion of our race kept down and crushed 
by the reversed action of the very powers given to 
man for his highest elevation. These powers are the 
religious nature and the intellect acting in combina. 
tion. Whatever heights man can reach he must reach 
through these. But what we see is the intervention of 
men claiming to be priests fostering and perpetuating 
ignorance, and, with mingled fanaticism and cunning, 
organizing, in the name of religion, vast systems of 
superstition. Once established, these systems become 
sacred. The associations which ought to connect 
themselves with the worship of God in spirit and in 
truth are transferred to useless, or cruel, or even licen- 
tious rites and forms. Through superstitious fears 
property is gained and service demanded, and human- 
ity becomes a blind Sampson grinding in its prison 
house. To uphold such a system there is no violence 
or deceit to which men will not resort and think they 
are doing God service. Hence, as not only prompted 
by interest and passion, but as sanctioned by con- 
science, religious persecutions have been more cruel 
and unrelenting than any others— yes, persecutions 
even in the name of that religion which was founded 
by the Prince of Peace, and whose essence is love. 


14 


This form of superstition, to some extent prevalent 
everywhere, could not fail to be especially so among a 
people who retained many of their heathen traditions 
and customs, and whose religious teachers are often 
unable to read the Scriptures. To enforce it upon 
such a people that indus f ry, honesty, temperance, 
purity, truth, are so essentia! a part of religion that 
there is no true religion without them, is a great work, 
and one that must be done. To this work constant 
reference has been had in the instruction given here. 
The underlying and uplifting power of Christian truth 
as the only adequate support of a pure and all perva- 
sive morality has been insisted upon, and thus the 
influence of the Institution in this regard has been 
widely extended. 

As will be seen from the Report of General Arm- 
strong, to which I ask special attention, there have 
gone out from this school, thus equipped and taught, 
five hundred and eighty-four who have taken the full 
course, of whom five hundred and fifty-five are now liv- 
ing. Of these over ninety per cent, have taught 
school. Besides these a hundred and fifty who did 
not complete their course have done good work as 
teachers, and hundreds have been benefited by a few 
months or a year or two at school. Of those who have 
taught the past winter two hundred and forty-two 
have been enrolled as public school teachers of Virginia- 
That is nearly half the number of colored teachers 
employed in the State, and an equal number have 


‘5 


taught in other States. By the best estimate we can 
make, graduates of Hampton taught the last 
year twenty-five thousand Negro children, and yet the 
school is still far from able to supply the demand for 
teachers. Of those who have not taught in the com- 
mon schools thirty have taught in higher institu- 
tions, twenty-five have become ministers, ten lawyers, 
five doctors, a hundred have become farmers, or gone 
into business of various kinds, and forty have failed to 
make agoo.i record. One-third of the graduates have 
been young women, and among the best results of the 
school has been their influence upon family life. Of 
the whole number five-sixths are members of Christian 
churches, and it is believed are living right and respect- 
able lives. 

Turning to the Indians, we find that one hundred 
and eighty-nine who have been here from one to five 
years are now at their homes. Of these twenty -five 
have died, a hundred and six have done very well, 
fifty-five fairly well, sixteen badly, and from twelve 
there is no report. These are the facts, and facts are 
what we need and desire on this whole subject — the 
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 

By. their fruits ye shall know them.” The final test 
of this school is the work of its graduates. 

In speaking of the threefold work wrought here I 
have said nothing of the money expended for the sup- 
port of teachers. If we add the amount given for this 
to that given for the outfit of the school the whole 


i6 


will not fall short of a million of dollars. And all this 
without debt. The incubus of that dreadful word does 
not rest here. Nor have I said anything of the teach- 
ers themselves, who have not wrought chiefly for 
money. Coming, for the most part, from cultured and 
refined homes, meeting for a longtime with scant sym- 
pathy, and not seldom, in former times, with aversion 
and scorn, they have laid upon the altar of this service 
an amount of self-denying and heroic labor that can 
find its reward only in a sphere where money is not 
the standard of value. The whole country owes them 
thanks. 

Looking then at the whole work done on this 
ground, we say that it is a great work. Whether we 
regard the givers or the teachers, we say too, that if 
Christ had not come this work could not have been 
done. Outside of Christianity there is nothing like 
it, and since that is kept alive in the world only by the 
Spirit of the Living God, we say again, ‘What hath 
God wrought ?” 

But while a great work has thus been done on 
thisground, a great work remains to be done not only 
by the Institution, but for it. As we have seen, its 
growth has been marvelous. It has already accom* 
plished much, and, as at present organized and equip, 
ped, may go on for some time and accomplish even 
more. But an endowment is needed. The central 
indomitable, wise energy, fertile in expedients, com- 
prehensive in plans, that has had so much to do in 


*7 


bringing the Institution up to its present point can- 
not continue always. If the Institution is to do its 
present work it is the hard lot of Gen. Armstrong, up- 
on whose head there are more gray hairs than time 
has put there, to raise, each year, from the gifts of 
Christian and philanthropic people the large sum of 
fifty thousand dollars. This, probably, no other man 
could do. The work of the Institution we would not 
have diminished nor would we have it much increas- 
ed. In my judgment, and in this Gen. Armstrong 
agrees with me. the Institution has now reached the 
limit of best supervision and most efficient work. But 
with its buildings completed and its work systematiz- 
ed, it can, with an adequate endowment, continue to 
work more efficiently and beneficently as experience 
shall be gained. Five hundred thousand dollars are 
needed. Of this one hundred and six thousand have 
already been given. Shall the rest be provided ? I 
believe it will be. I do not believe that those who 
have put their hand to this plow will look back. I do 
not believe that God, who has wrought with them, 
and done so much for the cause by them, will now 
forsake that cause. In this day of enlarged benevo- 
lence, and of fortunes that go up into the millions, it 
can hardly be after so much has been done, that the 
friends of humanity will see this Institution crippled, 
or will fail to furnish means by which the wheels of 
its progress shall be kept, if possible, in steadier and 
more rapid motion in all coming time. 


i8 


The work done here has had, and will continue to 
have an intrinsic value worth all its cost, but we re- 
gard it chiefly as it is related to a greater work which 
is to be done, not by this Institution only, but by all 
institutions, and all influences that can be brought to 
bear upon it. As a nation it is stdl with us as it was 
with the Israelites when they were encamped on the 
plains of Moab. As they had yet to fight many a 
battle before they could possess the promised land, 
and had then to settle the claims of the different tribes 
and to combine them into one nationality, so we have 
yet before us a great, and in some respects, not dissimi- 
lar work. 

From the plains of Moab where the Israelites 
looked forward to their promised land, they went up 
and took possession of it, but only as God was with 
them. When they were faithful to Him, and He 
wrought with them they prospered. One chased a 
thousand and two put ten thousand to flight. When 
they forsook Him and He withdrew His aid they fell 
into decline and were smitten before their enemies. 
Their whole history is but an alternation of prosper- 
ity and disaster as they did, or did not, serve God, 
until at length they so far fell into idolatry and conse- 
quent wickedness that He gave them over into cap- 
tivity. “He sent to them His messengers, rising betimes 
and sending them,” “But they mocked the messen- 
gers of God, and despised his words, and misused his 
prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his 


«9 


people till there was no remedy.” And so it was with 
the Jews after their return from captivity. They did 
not relapse into idolatry, but they did fall, partly, as 
the Sadducees, into infidelity, and, partly, as the Phar- 
isees, into a self-righteous formalism whereby they 
made void the law of God, and crucified his Son, and 
persecuted his followers till the wrath of the Lord 
again arose against his people till there was no rem- 
edy. The walls of Jerusalem and of the temple were 
thrown down till not one stone was left upon another, 
and the Jews, retaining as by a miracle their nation- 
ality, have been a scattered and an oppressed people 
till this day. Throughout their whole history they 
stand before the nations as an object lesson to teach 
them that there are retributions for nations in this 
world, and that without God they cannot prosper. 

This is the one lesson that we are to lay to heart 
if we are to do the work that is set before us. That 
work is to consolidate the nationalities and races that 
now inhabit these United States into a free and per- 
manent government under which manhood, as in the 
image of God shall be respected, and the right of every 
man to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness shall 
be conceded and maintained. Something more is pos- 
sible, but at present such a government, with the 
marvelous control now given by science over nature 
and the decorations of an art, not yet developed, that 
shall blossom over the breadth of a continent, is 
the promised land to which we look forward. 


20 


Can this land be possessed? Can the work in- 
volved in its possession be done ? Can it be done de- 
spite the antagonism of races, the traditional hostility 
of nations, the diversity of language, the prejudice of 
color, the apparent conflict between the interests of 
capital and of labor? Can it be donedespite the under- 
mining and disintegrating effects of intemperance, 
and licentiousness, and fraud, and of the ambitious 
and sensuous and debasing tendencies hitherto reg- 
nant ? These are the Canaanites that are to be fought 
and exterminated, root and branch. The question has 
no relation to that of amalgamation or whether the 
races and nationalities shall be mingled in schools, in 
churches, ir social relations, in trade even, or shall 
move on in parallel lines as the Rhone and the Arve 
flow on without mingling, towards the same ocean 
where all differences are lost. It refers solely to the 
maintainance of those rights of our common manhood 
which the Declaration of Independence declares to us 
inalienable. Before our own, no great government has 
ever conceded and maintained these rights, our own 
has done it but imperfectly and is yet on trial, and if 
this work is to be done the capacity and possibilities 
of the race are to be tested as never before. Never 
before did the idea of the right of every man to take 
part in the government enter as a factor into politics. 
The ancient republics were really aristocracies with 
restricted citizenship. Never was there such capacity 
for the production and distribution of wealth, or for 


21 


simultaneous and organized action, never such an 
oceanic breadth of a free people, in their sectional in- 
terests and local governments, many as the waves, in 
their central government, one as the sea. 

Can then this work be done? Yes. The capacity 
for it is in man. He leadily conceives of it, and what- 
ever he can conceive of morally that he can become 
and do. The obstacles are wholly in him. Look at 
those I have mentioned. Every one of them is wholly 
in him. We need then, only to know the requisite 
changes in him, and how those changes can be wrought. 

And here it may be remarked, that if a change in 
men be the thing needed, it is obvious that not much 
can be expected from mere organization, men re- 
maining the same. On this point there is no little 
delusion. Organization is essential. Government 
itself is organization. But organizations differ as they 
do or do not pre-suppose and involve changes in men. 
Church organizations both presuppose and involve 
such changes. Literary and social organizations in- 
volve them. But under a free government, organiza- 
tions neither presupposing nor involving any such 
change, but having for their object to promote the 
interests or protect the rights of special classes, are 
generally mischievous. They are narrowing in their 
effect upon those who enter into them, and provoke 
antagonism in others. They involve expense for meet- 
ings, and the support of officers and organs, and gen- 
erally so become the centres of intrigue and corrup- 


22 


tion, if not of socialism and anarchy, that their total 
effect upon society is disastrous rather than bene- 
ficial. Especially is it undesirable that there should 
be among us any organization that tends toward a 
division into permanent classes or that would prevent 
a free movement from the lowest stratum of society 
upward, or from its highest stratum downward, ac- 
cording to industry and merit. 

Passing then to the changes needed in man, I 
observe that where there is ignorance that would 
disqualify a man from seeking intelligently the politi- 
cal and social state specified, there should be a change 
from ignorance to knowledge. This opens a vast work 
before us in this whole country, and particularly for 
this and similar schools. There must be knowledge. 
Men must be so far educated as to >:now their rights 
and the value of liberty, and its dependence upon law, 
and to be capable of being, not a dead weight to be 
carried, but a vital force in the progress of society. 
But a man may be thus educated and capable, and be 
an obstruction. Knowledge is simply instrumental. 
The burglar, the gambler, the counterfeiter, have 
knowledge, and the more they know the more dan- 
gerous they are. The thief and liar know they do 
wrong, but they do it. The theory that knowledge, 
trained intellect, what is commonly called education, 
is sufficient, breaks down at once and wholly under 
the fact that men are so far from doing as well as they 


23 


know. It is a prevalent theory, but till knowledge and 
conduct correspond it will be delusive. 

But if a change from ignorance to knowledge be 
not sufficient, what more is needed ? A change is 
needed in the directive rather than in the instrumen- 
tal powers. We need, back of knowledge, that choice 
which shall guide in its use to the best ends, and in 
seeking those ends shall subordinate all that is lower 
in man to that which is highest. We need a change 
of character, of that which is the deepest love, so that 
men shall love God with all their hearts and their 
neighbors as themselves. If such a change can be 
wrought it is self-evident that the needed work will 
be done. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.” If 
those of different races and nationalities were to love 
each other as themselves, if the employer were to love 
the employed as himself, and the employed were to 
love the employer as himself, it is plain that every 
man over this broad continent would be secure in his 
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This 
is the indispensable condition. As this is approxi- 
mated society will approximate perfection. Till this 
is aimed at, and, in some measure reached, men will 
only roll the stone of Sysiphus up the hill to have it 
return upon them. 

Knowing then the change that is needed in man, 
we only need to inquire further how that change can 
be wrought. 

And here we say that Christianity can do it, and 


24 


nothing else can. As we have seen, knowledge can 
not do it and no other religion can. There is not in 
one of them anything that tends to awaken in man an 
aspiration towards such a promised land as we seek. 
If such aspiration exist, it is in spite of the religion, 
and because the germs of it are in man himself. There 
is not one of them that tends to form in man a char- 
acter that would fit him to enter such a promised land. 
There is not one of them in connection with which 
society is not either station iry or in a process of de- 
velopment downwards The supposition that there is 
in man, apart from Christianity, a tendency to any 
permanent progress sufficient to remove the obstacles 
from man himself, is baseless. Christianity alone can 
do it. Comparing Christianity with other religions 
the difficulty is that its fruits are constantly judged of 
by the doings of those who are not Christians. Chris- 
tendom is not Christian, and there is no wickedness 
like that of nominal Christians. If theiratrocities and 
crimes of greed are not greater than those of heathen- 
dom, which may be doubted, their light is greater, 
and so they are more wicked. Rightly applied “By 
their fruits ye shall know them,” is a correct rule of 
judgment, but if arsenic were to be labelled flour it 
would be hardly fair to impute to flour the effects of 
arsenic, and yet this is the logic, either wicked or stu- 
pid, which exultant infidels apply to Christianity when 
they charge upon that the wickedness of nominal 
Christians. 


=5 


Christianity then is our only hope. That it is the 
object of that to produce in man love to God and love 
to man, cannot be denied, since those two comprise 
the sum of the law, and of the commandments of 
Christ. Paul, too, said that without love he was 
“nothing” — no Christian. This love is so of the es- 
sence of Christianity that without it there is no Christ- 
ianity. 

Are there then in Christianity, motive forces and 
a power such that we may hope that men in increasing 
numbers, and finally, all men on the face of the earth 
will be brought to exercise this love ? We say Yes- 
We say it because, in demanding this love Christianity 
is coincident with the deepest philosophy of our na- 
ture, as finding its perfection and highest good, both 
individual and social, only in this. It is the only con- 
dition of a perfect social state here, and a chief ele- 
ment in that heaven to which we look forward in 
the great future. We say yes, too, because Christ- 
ianity reveals to us and in the relation of a Father, a 
God who is love, and love begets love. “Everyone,’ 
says the Apostle John, “that loveth. is born of God.” 
We say yes, again, because there was, in the coming 
and life, and death of the founder of Christianity the 
most stupendous example of the love of God and of 
man of which we can conceive. “Greater love hath 
no man than this that a man lay down his life for his 
friends;” but “God commendeth his love to us in that 
-while we were yet enemies Christ died for us,” Love 


26 


begets love. “And I, if I be lifted up will draw all 
men unto me.” Once more, there are in Christianity 
not only motives consonant with our nature, but there, 
is in connection with it, an ever present personal 
agent working through these motives in accordance 
with human freedom and the purposes of God. I have 
spoken of Christianity as having in itself, as a system, 
the requisite power, and so we speak. But it is not 
Christianity that does the work. It is Christ. Christ 
has come, and lived, and died, and risen from the dead, 
and ascended to the right hand of God. He reigns. 
To him all power is given. He is the Savior of men 
not only by what He has done, but by what He is do- 
ing now, and it is only as He shall give more copious- 
ly the spirit that He shed down at Pentecost, that 
there will be raised up an army before whose shout 
every wall of opposition shall fall down. Let such an 
army go on, as did Israel of old, not carrying with it 
destruction, but adding to its ranks as itg^es till every 
man from ocean to ocean shall be a Christian, and, 
since the least that a Christian can do is to give every 
man his rights, we should have at once a social order 
and a government, in, and under, which every man 
would be secure in his right to life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. He would be free to work out 
his own best good in his own way. We should then 
have the promised land of which I have spoken. It 
would be the promised land of the statesman, all that 
statesmanship can give with the best material. It 


27 


would be a good land, far better than the present, but 
would not give us the milk and the honey. 

As I have intimated, Christianity would do for us 
something more. It is one thing for every man to 
have all his rights, and to pursue his own good in his 
own way, and quite another for every man to be actu- 
ated by a spirit of love and good will that would lead 
him to minister in every possible way to the good of 
those around him. This, statesmanship knows noth- 
ing of, but this, Christianity lays upon every man the 
obligation to do. Our present state isone of much ad- 
vancement, if every man had always his rights it 
would be far more advanced, but the coming in of this 
active love would be as another morning risen upon 
high noon. The radiance of the morning purplingthe 
mountain tops and then flooding the valleys is but 
a faint symbol of the light and warmth that would per- 
meate every stratum of our social life if the heart of 
every human being were a radiating center of love to 
God and love to man. That would be Christianity: 
Nothing short of that is. and if this land, from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific, and from the lakes to the gulf 
were inhabited by such Christians there would go up 
as never before the exclamation, ‘What hath God 
wrought?” Whether this is to be, I know not; I only 
know that such is Christianity and such would be its 
result. 

It is from this bearing of Christianity on the so- 
cial and political well-being of our country together 


28 


with the peculiar relations of this Institution to that 
well-being, that we rejoice as patriots in the gift to it 
-of this beautiful and commodious Chapel which is now 
to be dedicated fo the worship and service of Almighty 
God. It is patriotic Christianity that has built these 
buildings, and brought hither these teachers, and that 
rojoices to-day in a completed instrumentality which 
tends with no little power to avert the danger from ignor- 
ance and vice in the Negro race that was so strong- 
ly set forth by Pres. Garfield in his inaugural address. 
It is this tendency which gives its chief interest to this 
day and to the work done here. Let us see large num- 
bers of young men and women going out from this In- 
stitution as teachers, and carrying with them not on- 
ly the light of letters, but the uplifting and purifying 
power of a Christian example, and it will add to the 
strength of our hope for the country in the fierce con- 
flict that is now going on. It will turn a source of 
danger into a source of strength. 

It is not, however , the chief object of Christianity 
to promote the political or social well-being of 
man in this life. It will do that incidentally, but its 
chief object is to provide for the forgiveness of sins 
and to prepare men for a kingdom of righteousness, 
and peace, and holy activity, and joyful service, in a 
kingdom where Christ shall be King; and shall reign 
forever and ever. It is because we trust that this work 
will be here promoted that we rejoice as Christians in 
the gift of the Chapel that is now to be dedicated. 


-9 


We trust that here will be taught and promoted a 
Christianity as narrow in its creed as revealed truth, 
and as broad in its love as humanity. We trust that 
here, where three races and nearly every denomination 
are united in work, sectarian divisive feeling may be 
merged in ln\alty to Christ, and that the Babel of 
names may give place to that “onlv Name under heaven 
whereby we can be saved. " We '"ight then have here 
not a Baptist, or Methodist, or Congregational, or 
Episcopal, or Presbyterian church, but one whose 
designation should be “The Church of Christ” in the 
Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute. Such a 
church would be a branch of the one universal church 
of which Christ is the head. But be this as it may.we trust 
that here many shall be preparedto join that one great 
army ol the redeemed who shall sing the song of Mo- 
ses and the Lamb, and who, looking back with thank- 
ful and adoring wonder upon the way in which they 
have been led, — shall say, "What hath God wrought ?" 



REPORT MADE IN 1869 
B v a Visiting Committee 

COMPOSED OP 

Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D.. the late President 
Gareield, and others. 


The undersigned, having been desired to visit the Hampton 
Normal and Agricultural Institute, under the auspices of the 
American Missionary Association, and under the superintend- 
ence of General Samuel C. Armstrong, submit the following 
statements in regard to its location, its history, its object and 
plan, and its present condition and prospects : — 

I. Location. 

In this there is an historical fitness. It is within the Capes, 
and not far from the spot where the first slaves brought to this 
country was landed. It is where General Butler first refused to 
deliver up the fugitives, calling them “ contraband of war,” and 
where a city of refuge was provided, to which they thronged by 
boat-loads, and wagon loads, and in caravans, and were housed 
and fed by the government. It was here, too, that the first school 
for Freedmen was established. It was the site of the Hospital 
Barracks of McClellan’s and Grant’s armies, where many thou- 
sand sick and wounded were under treatment at one time ; and 
the farm connected with the Institute includes the United States 
cemetery, containing the bodies of nearly six thousand United 
States soldiers, together with the granite monument to these 
martyrs in the cause of freedom, which is in full view from the 
Institute. Not far distant is seen the flag of Fortress Monroe, 
and it is within sight of the spot where the battle was fought be- 
tween the Monitor and Merrimac. 

The location has alto advantages as regards convenience, econ- 
omy, and the coast. It is accessible by water, and so by the 
cheapest possible transportotion, from the whole region of the 
Chesapeake Bay, of the Potomac, York and James Rivers, and 
of the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, a region including a col- 


32 


ored population which has been, if it be not now, of greater rela- 
tive density than any other. With a steamboat-landing on the 
farm, it has ready access to the principal seaboard cities of the 
North, both as markets and as sources of supply. It is also re- 
markably beautiful, having the advantages of sea-breeze, and 
opportunities for sea-bathing. The place was, indeed, formerly 
the seat of a large female seminary, and was a summer resort 
for health and recreation, 

II. Its History. 

As has been said, this was the site of the first school for Freed- 
men, and here the Butler school is still kept in the large build- 
ing originally built for it on the premises, and is taught by pupils 
from the Institute. This, however, did not involve the idea of 
the Institute as a Normal School and a seminary of a high order. 
That was originated by General Armstrong, who had charge of 
the Freedmen’s Bureau at this point, and who first comprehend- 
ed the facilities afforded by the place, and the greatness of the 
work that might be done here. At his suggestion, and chiefly 
through his efforts, the American Missionary Association heart- 
ily co-operating, the estate now called the Whipple Farm, in- 
cluding a hundred and twenty-five acres of excellent land, to- 
gether with the mansion used by the United States officers for 
their headquarters, the Butler school-house and the hospital bar- 
racks were purchased. The whole cost, including improvements, 
has been about forty-five thousand dollars. 

III. Its Object and Plan. 

The object of the Institute, as stated in the act of incorpora- 
tion, is “ to prepare youth of the South, without distinction of 
color, for the work of organizing and instructing schools in the 
Southern States.” Its object is the diffusion throughout the 
South, where Normal and Agricultural schools have not been 
established as yet, of the best methods and advantages of edu- 
cation ; and if the benefit of the colored people be more imme- 
diately anticipated, it is only from the apprehended unwilling- 
ness of others to avail themselves of the advantages of the In- 
stitute. Whatever provision may or may not be made, for the 
general education of the South, it is clearly among the most im- 
perative duties, both of the North and of the South, to provide 


in the best manner practicable for the enlightenment, the more 
perfect Christianization, and the full manhood of the Freedmen. 
This is now the point of trial for this nation before Him who has 
begun to vindicate the rights of a long-suffering people; and 
scarcely more for their sakes than for our own, and for the sakes 
of the whole African race, should this duty be accepted by us. 

But if the duty be accepted it is not seen how it can be per- 
formed without some institution which shall combine, as this In- 
stitute proposes to do, education and training, with opportunity 
for self-help. In these two, education and self-help, we have the 
object and plan of the Institute. It would provide a body of 
colored teacheis, the best and only available agency for the 
work, thoroughly trained, not only in the requisite knowledge 
and in the best methods of teaching, but also in all that pertains 
to right living, including habits of intelligent labor. Emotional 
in their nature, unaccustomed to self-control, and improvident 
by habit, the Freedmen need discipline and training even more 
than teaching; and the Institute would avoid the mistake, some- 
times made on missionary grounds, of so training teachers as to 
put them out of sympathy with the people in their present con- 
dition, and in the struggle that is before them if they are to rise. 
It would, therefore, make much of the feature of self-help, not 
only as relieving the benevolent from a burthen, but as inspiring 
seif-respect and self-reliance, and as tending to a consistency and 
solidity of character that are especially needed. It would aim 
at reaching, and to be effectual it must reach, those who cannot 
pay their way except by their own labor. 

With these views a large agricultural interest has been organ- 
ized both for instruction and profit. So far this has succeeded 
well in both respects, and, with suitable management, it cannot 
fail to do so in future. The soil is rich and varied, adapted both 
to fruits and vegetables. On the farm are large quantities of 
muck and sea-mud, and fish-guano from the neighboring fishe- 
ries. It is intended to make the culture varied, and to introduce 
improved methods, to be put in practice wherever the pupils 
may go. The farm, thus furnishing wood for the school, in con- 
nection with adjacent fisheries, which make living cheap, will 
enable the poorest youth to meet all his necessary expenses, and 
at the same time receive good educational advantages. This 
department is under the superintendence of Mr. F. Richardson, 


14 


who is admirably qualified for the position, and for details of its 
condition and prospects we refer to a statement by him, append- 
ed to this paper. 

The farm is for the men. But as at the North, so at the South; 
and more and more, the teaching is to be done by the women, 
and for their education and training too ample provision cannot 
be made. Young women at the Institute are on equal looting, 
in all respects, with the young men, except that their opportuni- 
ties for supporting themselves by their o\\ n labor are not as good. 
Something, much indeed, has been done. An industry has been 
organized, by which the pupils are paid for making up garments 
Which are sold at a small profit. This is beneficial in every way. 
About twenty cab also be employed the greater part of the year 
in teaching. This, however, is a department Which needs, and 
should receive, efficient aid. 

IV. Its Present Condition and Prospects. 

Of these we do not hesitate to speak with satisfaction and 
high hope. The school was opened in April, 1868, and there 
have since been sixty-six pupils in attendance, of whom fifty-two 
were boarders. Of these eight have been employed as teachers 
in Freedmen’s day schools, doing, under careful superintend- 
ence, the work done in previous years by Northern teachers, and 
giving good satisfaction in it ; and thus, while keeping up with 
their classes in the Normal School, paying their necessary ex- 
penses. Three hundred children have been thus taught during 
the past year by undergraduates of the Institute, and it is ex- 
pected that twice that number will be so taught during the year 
to come. In the present vacation, including July and Septem- 
ber, twelve pupils have gone out to teach, and will have not less 
than five hundred children in their schools. 

The closing examination and exercises of the school indicated 
a thoroughness and faithfulness on the part of the teachers that 
nothing but missionary zeal could have inspired. Hitherto the 
teachers of the Institute have all been ladies; and here, as in 
many places throughout the South, Northern ladies of high cha- 
racter have done, and are doing, a most Christian and heroic 
work, looking for their richest reward in the thanks of the low- 
ly and the smile of Him who came that the Gospel might be 
preached to the poor. On the part of the scholars there was in- 
dicated a diligence and proficiency quite remarkable, and that 


Would have done credit to students similarly, situated of any 
race or color. Not only has the teaching been diligent, but of 
the highest order, and the results correspond. There was great 
correctness in reading and spelling. Nearly all wrote a good 
hand, and the blackboard exercises in map drawing, with the 
new method of triangulation, would have been creditable to the 
pupils in any Normal School at the North. The whole results 
furnish the fullest encouragement to future effort. 

We are thus doing for the Freedmen, through this Institute, 
with such modifications as their condition demands, just what 
we are doing for ourselves in those States that are further ad- 
vanced in education ; and if the Southern people could but wise- 
ly co-operate, the experiment with the Freedmen could at once 
be fairly made. Fortunate in its position, and comprehensive in 
its aims, the Institute is adapted to do a great work for the Afri- 
can race both in this and their fatherland. It is just the agency 
needed, through which benevolent individuals, and the fund of 
Mr. Peabody, now so magnificently enlarged, may work. Tn 
the plan of it nothing is wanting. To carry it out executive 
ability and business talent of a high order will be needed, espe- 
cially at first. These we think it now has in those at the head of 
each of its departments, and we heartily commend the enter- 
prise to the confidence, to the prayers, and to the benefactions of 
the good people of the whole country. 

(Signed) Mark Hopkins, Chairman. 
James A. Garfield, 
Alexander Hyde, 

Hampton, Va., July, i86g. B. G. Northrup. 


GENERAL STATEMENT. 


TIIE HAMPTON NORMAL AND AGRICULTURAL 
INSTITUTE, 

Opened April, 1868, is a private corporation, composed of 
seventeen Trustees, representing six States, with power to choose 
their successors, who hold and control the property of the 
Institute under a charter granted in 1870 by a special Act of the 
General Assembly of Virginia. 

It is exempt from taxation. 

There is a majority of no religious denomination on the Board 
of Trustees. The school is earnestly and actively Christian in 
its work and spirit ; it has a class in Bible study for the neighbor- 
ing pastors and others, 26 in number. 

The State of Virginia has entrusted to this corporation the use 
of the interest on that part of the Agricultural Land Fund of the 
State devoted to the colored people, amounting to ten thousand 
dollars annually. 

The United States Government sends one hundred and twen- 
ty Indians here to be educated, paying $167 per annum lor each 
one, which provides for their personal expenses, board and cloth- 
ing, but not for the cost of their teaching. Fifteen to twenty In- 
dians besides are taken at private expense. 

Average attendance for the current school year 596, of whom 
13 are day pupils, the rest boarders from abroad, including 135 
Indians, representing 13 States and Territories; Average age 
13 years. Two-fifths are young women. 

There are seventy officers and teachers, teachers being about 
equally divided between the academic and industrial depart- 


ments. 


37 


The sum to be annually raised from charity to meet the needs 
of the school is fifty thousand (50,000) dollars, about one-half of 
which is usually given in the form of annual scholarships of sev- 
enty dollars each (the cost of instruction, each student paying 
personal expenses, chiefly in labor). The rest has come from 
general contributions and from legacies. Students earned last 
year ^4,085.31 on the farm and in the thirteen trades taught 
here, which paid for their board, clothing and books. 

The object of the school is to furnish teachers for the black 
and red races of this country, and the results so far are encour- 
aging. 

The last report of the Principal will be sent to any one desir- 
ing it. 

An Endowment Fund of $500,000.0 es to secure permanent and 
reliable means of support is a great and pressing need. 

S. C. Armstrong, Principal. 

Hampton. Va., June, 1886. 


Form of Bequest. 

I give and devise to the Trustees of the Hampton Normal 
and Agricultural Institute, at Hampton, Va., the sum of 
dollars, payable, etc., etc. 




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